KOCHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the Karuvannur Service Co-operative Bank money-laundering case found that bogus loans were sanctioned at the behest of CPM Thrissur District Committee. The investigation also found that five cents of land purchased for the construction of CPM office at Porathissery was from proceeds of crime linked to Karuvannur bank.
ED had attached 18 movable and immovable assets to the tune of Rs 29.29 crore on Friday. These included five cents of land purchased in Porathissery in the name of CPM district secretary M M Varghese, two fixed deposit accounts of the district committee, a bank account of Irinjalakuda area committee and five bogus accounts maintained by the party in Karuvannur bank.
“The investigation has revealed that benami and illegal loans were sanctioned at the behest of the secretary and the governing body of the society in connivance with the then bank manager, at the behest of the Thrissur District Committee of the CPM. In return, the Thrissur CPM District Committee collected money in the form of donations and salary cut from the beneficiaries and society committee members into their undisclosed and illegally opened bank accounts in the same of the society. These funds were utilised for purchase of a land for Rs 10 lakh by the secretary, Thrissur CPM District Committee for construction of the party office which has now been attached as proceeds of crime,” ED stated in a press release.